Monte Frank, a Sandy Hook attorney and founder of the anti-gun violence awareness group Team 26

Monte Frank, a Sandy Hook attorney and founder of the anti-gun violence awareness group Team 26

Photo: / Contributed Photo

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Po Murray, chairman of the Newtown Action Alliance

Po Murray, chairman of the Newtown Action Alliance

Photo: / Carol Kaliff

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People hug and cry outside the Thomas & Mack Center after a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Monday in Las Vegas. A gunman, identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the music festival, leaving at least 50 people dead and hundreds injured. less

People hug and cry outside the Thomas & Mack Center after a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Monday in Las Vegas. A gunman, identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, ... more

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2013 file photo, Jimmy Greene, left, kisses his wife Nelba Marquez-Greene as he holds a portrait of their daughter, Sandy Hook School shooting victim Ana Marquez-Greene, at a news conference in Newtown. less

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2013 file photo, Jimmy Greene, left, kisses his wife Nelba Marquez-Greene as he holds a portrait of their daughter, Sandy Hook School shooting victim Ana Marquez-Greene, at a news ... more

Photo: Jessica Hill /

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Sandy Hook groups react to Las Vegas shooting

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NEWTOWN - Families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook massacre reacted with sadness and anger as news of the nation’s deadliest shooting emerged from Las Vegas, where a gunman killed 58 people and injured hundreds of others attending a concert.

“Feeling a lot of pain for yet another community as it joins our Sandy Hook club while Congress does nothing,” said Sandy Hook attorney and bicycle activist Monte Frank on Twitter. “We are all sitting ducks.”

The Newtown Action Alliance, a gun violence prevention group that formed after the 2012 slaying of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook School, urged people to call on Congress for gun safety reform.

“Thoughts and prayers are not enough,” the Newtown Action Alliance tweeted in response to President Donald Trump’s tweet offering ‘My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting.’ “You must join the Democrats to pass a ban on assault weapons...”

“I’d love to partner to form a plan to stop these senseless killings,” Lafferty wrote in a tweet. “I can offer more than thoughts and prayers.”

The families were reacting to news that a gunman on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel-casino fired on an outdoor country music concert, killing at least 58 people and wounding 515 on Sunday.

It is the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the Associated Press reported, but law enforcement officials said during a late morning news conference in Las Vegas that there was no indication that the gunman had ties to a terrorist group overseas.

Nelba Márquez-Greene, who lost a daughter in the Sandy Hook massacre, said the loss was irreversible.

“You don’t recover from this — as a mother, brother, father. You manage,” she posted on Twitter. “But there is no recovery. I am heartbroken.”

The family of slain Sandy Hook teacher Victoria Leigh Soto put out a statement to the grieving families.

“Our prayers go out to the families to heal from this horrific event,” read the statement. “We don’t have to live like this.”